SYNAGOGUE
381
SYNAGOGUE
claims that the Prophets handed down the Torah
to the men of the Great Synagogue. "Aboth Rabbi
Nathan" (a post-Talniudic treatLse) paraphrases this
statement by including the last three Prophets in
this assemblage: "Aggeus, Zacharias and Malachiaa
received [the Torah) from the Prophets; and the
men of the Great Synagogue received from Aggeus,
Zacharias and Malachias". How long this sup-
posedly authoritative body held control of the religion
of Israel, it is impossible to tell. Jewish chronology
From the Exile to Alexander's conquest is far from
- lear. Rabbi Jeremiah (Jerus. Talmud, Berakot,
Id) says that one hundred and twenty elders made jp this body and instituted the prayers and bene- iictions of Kiddiish and habdalah. The Talmud, on the contrarj- (Peah, II, 6), hands down Torah from the Prophets to the Zugoth (Pairs) without the in- ter\'ention of the Great Sj-nagogue. Be the Great Synagogue of Jewish tradition what it may, historical jriticism has ruled it out of court. Kuenen, in his jpoch-making monograph "Over die Mannen der ^oote sjTiagoge" (.\msterdam, 1876), shows that a single meeting came to be looked upon as a permanent nstitution. The Levites and people met once and Dnly once, probably on the occasion of the covenant iescribed by Nehemias (II Esd., viii-xi, and the im- jortant assemblage became the nucleus round which were ^Tapped the fables of later Jewish tradition. ?uch is the conclusion of W. R. Smith, "The Old Pestament in the Jewish Chiirch", p. 169; Ryle, "Canon of the Old Testament", p. 250; Buhl, "Canon md Tex-t of the Old Testament", p. 33; Driver, "In- troduction to the Literature of the Old Testament", 5th ed., p. 7.
IV. Organiz.\tion. — (1) Judicial. — The "sons of the s>Tiagogue" were governed by a council called jelh din, "house of justice"; or awiSpiov "council" [transUterated ""~,"i^C, Sanhedrin); or/3oi>X^, "coun-
- ir'. The members of this council were twenty-three
n larger towns, seven in smaller; and were called IpX<""'«!, "rulers" (Matt., ix, 18, 2.3; Luke, viii, 41), jr Trpec^vrepoi, "ancients" (Luke, vii, 3). The 'rulers of the synagogue" had it in their power to lunish by excommunication, scourging and death. [a) Excommunication from the synagogal community ^•as termed /lerew, CH, dKiSf/«i(see.\N.\THEMA). Both he Hebrew and Greek words mean that an object is 'sacred" or "accursed" (cf. Arabic harini, the harem, J precinct sacred to the women of a household or the ■nosque of a community), (b) Scourging (.1"!^:, cf. Makkoth, III, 12; ^(rT(7iai, cf. Matt, x, 17; xxiii, 34; i^pu, cf. Mark, xiii, 9; Acts, xxii, 19) was thirty-nine itripcs (Makkoth, III, 10; II Cor., xi, 24) laid on by he "ser\-ant of the sjTiagogue", fiazzati, ireph-rit, for ninor offences. Three elders made up a t ribunal com- t)etent to inflict the penalty of scourging. It is likely
- o this lesser tribunal that Our Lord refers
- "Whoso-
ever is angrj' with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment ", fvoxos eo-roi rj Kpio-et (Matt., v, 22). [c) The death penalty was inflicted by the Sanhedrin n full session of twenty-three elders (cf. Sanhedrin I, 1). To this penalty or to that of excommunication
- houId probably be referred Our Lord's words
- "And
whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in langor of the council", tvoxos (arai rif avnbplif .Matt., v, 22).
(2) Littirgiail. — The "ruler of the synagogue", 'ipXiiTwaywy&f (Mark, V, 22, 35, 36, 38; Luke, viii, 49; dii, 14; Acts, xiii, 15; xviii, 8, 17), rdsh hdkkenescth Sota, VH, 7) presided over the synagogue and its ier\-ices. This presidency did not prevent the "sons )f the svTiagogue" from freely officiating. Witness he freedom with which Our Ix)rd and St. Paul stood ip to explain the Scriptures in the various sj-nagogues )f Palestine and the Diaspora. The hazzan, "ser- .•ant", handed the scrolls to the readers and taught ,he children.
V. LiTDRGT. — There were five parts in the syna-
gogue service: (I) the Shema' is made up of Deut., vi,
4-9; xi, 13-21; Num., xv, 37-41 — two opening bless-
ings for morning and evening, one closing blessing for
morning and two for evening. These benedictions
are named Shima from the opening word, the impera-
tive l"!2'C: "Hear, O Israel; Jahweh our God is one
Jahweh". The origin of the ShSma , as of other por-
tions of Jewish liturgy, is unknomi. It seems un-
doubtedly to be pre-Christian. For it ordains the
wearing of the phylacteries or frontlets — prayer-bands
borne upon the arm and between the eyes — during
the recitation of the great commandment of the love
of God (cf. Deut., vi, 8; .\i, 18). These phylacteries
{<t»i\aKTripia) are called in the Talmud, "the prayer
which is for the hand",-," Vi' rhZT', and "the prayer
which is for the head", rNI h'i n^Sri. The wearing of
the two bands was in vogue in Christian times (Matt.,
x.xiii, 5; Josephus, "Antiquit.", IV, viii, 13).
(2) r/(e Pra (/tr is called "the eighteenth ",SAe»i(5nefc 'esreh (,"!-";•" -]"2?),becauseofitseighteen benedictions and petitions. There are two recensions — the Baby- lonian, which is commonly in use, and the Palestin- ian, which Schechter recently discovered in a Cairo genizah (MSS.-box). Dalman (Worte Jesu, p. 304) considers that petitions 7, 10-14, are later than the destruction of Jerusalem (a. d. 70). The twelfth petition of the Palestinian recension shows that the Christians were mentioned in this daily prayer of the synagogue:
"May the Christians and heretics perish in a moment; May they be blotted out of the book of hfe; May they not be WTitten with the just." The Babylonian recension omits 2"^'i^, Christians. The Ix)rd's prayer is made up, in like manner, out of petitions and praises, but in a very unlike and un- Jewish spirit of love of enemies.
(3) Torah. — The Jerusalem Talmud (Megilla, 75a) tells us that the reading of the Law on sabbaths, feast- days, new moons, and half feast-days is of Mosaic institution; and that Esdras inaugurated the reading of Torah on Mondays, Thursdaj-s, and Saturdaj's. This Talmudic tradition, though not very rehable, points to a verj- ancient custom. The law is divided into fifty-four sections, seddrtm, which make up a pericopic sabbath reading of the Pentateuch. Special reacUngs are assigned for special sabbaths ; seven read- ers are called upon at random, and each reads hia share.
(4) The Prophets. — Parallel to the pericopic read- ing of Torah is a pericopic reading from the Prophets, or second part of the Hebrew Canon. These sections are chosen with a view to exemplify or drive home the lesson from the Law which precedes. The name of the section from the Prophets, haphtdrd (from Hiph'il of "'^Z, "to dismiss"), indicates that at first the sjTiagogue service here came to a close.
(5) The Scripture Lesson. — Even by the time of Christ, the exposition of Scripture was part of the sj-nagogal liturgj- (Matt., iv, 23; Mark, i, 21; vi, 2). Any of the brethren might be called ujion to give the "word of exhortation" (Acts, xiii, 15). The Tal- mudic statute (Megilla, IV, 4) was that the niethur- gemdn, interpreter, paraphrase the section from Torah one verse at a time and the section from the Prophets one to three verses at a time. These parai)hrases are called tdrgHmtm: a lengthy ex-position of a section is a midrdsh. There was formerly an antiphonal chanting of one or other of Psalms cv-cvii, cxi-cxix, cxvi- cxviii, cxxxv, cxxxvi, cxxxx\-i-cl. The precentor chanted verse after verse and the choir repeated the first verse of the psalm. At the end, he chanted the doxologyand called upon th(; people to answer "Amen ", which they did.
VI. BuiLDiNo. — (1) Site. — In Palestine, the syna- gogues were built within the city. In the Diaspora,
